‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

John Brunton is hopping mad, and he’s letting Canadian Idol viewers in Toronto know it.

"Last night's elimination of three competitors from this year's Canadian Idol Top 22 is disgraceful. Toronto lost half of its competitors in one night, and 75% of the eliminated competitors were from our city. These were three great young singers - any one of which would have made a fantastic Top 10 competitor.

While the rest of the country is buzzing about Canadian Idol and the success of their hometown heroes, Toronto is not paying attention. Toronto is not supporting the local talent found right in its own backyard.

I wish Mr. Brunton would make up his mind. When Atlantic provinces vote for their own, it's not regional voting and you need the entire country behind you to move on. Then when the Centre of The Universe doesn't get behind it's own, then regional voting is encouraged. I wish he'd just shut up, he looks desperate which he is to get more Torontonians tuned in to his dying franchise of a show.

Who in their right mind would cheer on the performances of Justyn, Derek & Christine from last week (apologies to those who are fans but all three of them were rather weak in the performance area). I'm born and bred in Toronto and could care less where competitors are from. I want a good voice and a sense of entertainment from the performance. If they're from Aklavik or Petty Harbor I don't care just so long as they're entertaining. A lot of the competitors the other night just plain weren't entertaining, especially the 3 voted off from Toronto.

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

He probably thinks if people in Toronto aren't voting they also aren't watching and doesn't want to miss out on the viewing figures from such a large market.
I agree with your assessment, IC.
Ridiculous comment from him, imo.
I don't like it when people vote regionally and don't like the idea that a show executive is encouraging people to do that and criticising them if they don't.

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

I think that regional voting allows less talented performers to ride the wave to the top five or ten, elbowing out some of the more deserving contestants. I am a Torontonian and would have never voted for any of the three that were eliminated. I'd rather see talent up there than someone representing a city/province.

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

Give me a break. Just another "Poor Toronto" whine. People should vote for singers who entertain them not just because they hail from a certain region. If they want to make it Toronto Idol and not Canadian Idol then he can complain but until that happens get over it.

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

Ryan Malcolm is from Ontario, after all.

I understand there will always be a degree of regional voting. It's the equivalent of cheering for the home team. However, I don't think that it really kicks into high gear until the last 4 or 5. While living in Saskatoon, I know there was a huge push to have people vote for Theresa Sokyrka, but it wasn't until towards the end of the show. I don't think the regional voters come out in force this early in the season.

All my life, I have felt destiny tugging at my sleeve.~ Thursday NextI don't want to "go with the flow". The flow just washes you down the drain. I want to fight the flow.- Henry RollinsAll this spiritual talk is great and everything...but at the end of the day, there's nothing like a pair of skinny jeans. - Jillian Michaels

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

I agree that regional voting definitely comes into play, but if anything, shouldn't the places with the largest population have the most regional votes?
Voting for talent I think provides a better show in the long run. Especially after some of the regional voting that's happened on CI.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't vote for someone here if they were equally as bad as someone from somewhere else.

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

I think with not revealing, that all the super sleuths we have here at FORT and all the ways one can find out, location wouldn't stay secret long. There's just far too many ways to find that stuff out nowadays.

Re: ‘Canadian Idol, executive producer John Brunton lashes out!

Originally Posted by AJane;2457641;

I understand there will always be a degree of regional voting. It's the equivalent of cheering for the home team. However, I don't think that it really kicks into high gear until the last 4 or 5. While living in Saskatoon, I know there was a huge push to have people vote for Theresa Sokyrka, but it wasn't until towards the end of the show. I don't think the regional voters come out in force this early in the season.

Disagree completely AJane. The regional voting has a huge impact early on in the season and keeps a lot of lesser talent around. There are far less votes in the early rounds and the winning (or losing) margins are much smaller so the regional votes have a bigger influence. Every year the total number of votes increases substantially every week until the end. Once you get down to the last 4 or 5, each contestant's share of the couple of million votes is much bigger so a regional vote of, say, 100,000 wouldn't have much affect. But in the early rounds when there are what, 7-800,000 votes for a semi-final show in total, divided by 9 semi-finalists, the difference between 3rd from the bottom and 2nd from the bottom may be only hundreds of votes.

It's not just a coincidence that there's always a Newfoundlander in the Top 10 and that they all last long into the competition.